Recipes from a British-Chinese kitchen, mainly pinched from my parents and 婆婆.

Sunday, 21 July 2013

Penne with Fresh Tomato and Mascarpone Sauce

The middle child has been strange about creamy, buttery sauces for a while. I guess he takes after me, who would heave at the sight of a croissant when I was young. How times have changed!

This is one of those "Tuesday after swimming" dishes - the tomato sauce can be prepared the night before, then reheated and the mascarpone stirred in just before serving. I was a bit worried about the creaminess, but it turned out that my sociable little children were invited back to a friend's house for pizza, so I ended up eating this dish myself, and it was really very tasty and easy. It used up the remnants of a tub of mascarpone from a disastrous cheesecake, but good old Philadelphia or any full fat cream cheese would do as a substitute.

Ingredients

4-5 large, ripe tomatoes (they must be ripe!)

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1 heaped tbsp mascarpone cheese

3-4 springs of fresh basil, leaves removed and finely chopped

Olive oil for frying

A touch of salt and ground black pepper

150-200g penne pasta

Serves 2

Instructions

Using a knife, score a large cross into the bottom of each tomato. Place in a large bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave for 10 minutes

Remove the tomatoes and peel the skin off. Roughly chop and de-seed the tomatoes, and put aside

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan to a moderate heat. Add the crushed garlic so that it is just trembling bubbles in the oil, and stir for 1 minute to flavour the oil

Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, chopped basil, salt and black pepper, and stir well to combine. Bring back to bubbling, then lower the heat to a simmer, cover the pan and leave to cook for 20 minutes. Add small quantities (20ml increments) of water to the pan if you feel that the sauce is getting too thick

When the tomatoes have softened after 20 minutes, mash them to break them up. Continue to heat for another 10 minutes

Cook the penne according to the instructions on the packet, and drain when cooked to al dente

Add the mascarpone to the sauce and stir to combine. Add the penne to the sauce and mix well